This invention relates to a mirror assembly. More specifically, this invention relates to a vehicle body side mirror assembly which may be easily reset to a previously determined position.
The use of vehicle body side mirror assemblies is well-known in the art. Specifically, such mirror assemblies are mounted upon the driver and/or passenger side of a vehicle such that the driver may see vehicles behind him. Such mirror assemblies must of necessity be adjustable to various positions because of the wide variation in height and angle of sitting among the driving public.
A problem with vehicle body side mirror assemblies is that they generally require repeated trial and error in order to place them in proper alignment for a particular operator. It is time consuming in order to set the mirror assembly to a proper position.
The problems associated with setting such mirror assemblies are especially vexing when setting the passenger side mirror assembly. The vehicle operator must roughly adjust the passenger side mirror and then slide back to the driver side of the vehicle to determine if the setting is proper. It is then usually necessary to slide back to the passenger side of the vehicle to more properly adjust the mirror. Often, it will be necessary to slide back to the passenger side of the vehicle a third time in order to fine tune the setting of the mirror.
The necessity for resetting a mirror assembly for a vehicle often occurs as a result of going through a car or truck wash and then finding that the car washing brushes have knocked the mirror or mirrors out of their proper settings.
The problem of resetting mirrors to their proper settings is also especially troublesome when a vehicle is driven by more than one operator. If the two operators are different in height, it will usually be necessary to readjust the mirrors for the particular operator. Accordingly, if two people are taking turns driving, it is usually necessary to reset the vehicle body side mirror assemblies each time a new driver takes over, thus requiring the time consuming trial and error technique discussed above.
In response to the above noted problems, the prior art includes the following patents showing techniques for quickly readjusting a side mirror assembly to a predetermined position:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issuance Date ______________________________________ 3,439,646 Helle April 22, 1969 3,513,807 Helle May 26, 1970 3,565,033 Helle February 23, 1971 ______________________________________
The Helle patents show various constructions for vehicle side mirror assemblies including index markings for resetting the mirrors to a previously set position.
The following patents disclose various techniques for resetting a mirror to a preset or predetermined position:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issuance Date ______________________________________ 2,685,859 Donnell August 10, 1954 3,024,049 Tranas March 6, 1962 3,421,728 Gordon January 14, 1969 ______________________________________
The Donnell patent shows a mirror assembly including an indicating plate having indicia which cooperate with indicia upon a mirror frame in order to reset the mirror to a predetermined position.
The Tranas patent discloses a mirror construction including an adjustable swivel and having a number wheel to allow one to reset the mirror to a predetermined position.
The Gordon patent discloses an adjustable mirror including a horizontal position wheel for setting the horizontal angle of a mirror and a vertical number wheel for setting the vertical angle of the mirror.
Although the prior art mirror assemblies have been generally useful, they have often been subject to one or more of several disadvantages. In particular, such mirror assemblies often require extra parts, thereby increasing the complexity of construction. Additionally, other of the heretofore known mirror assemblies are difficult to reset to a predetermined position because of parallax error or lack of clarity of the indicia settings.
A further problem common to vehicle body side mirror assemblies which have features to facilitate quick resetting of the mirrors is that they often require different constructions for the driver side mirror assembly and the passenger side mirror assembly. Since one views a mirror assembly from a different angle depending whether it is mounted upon the driver side or passenger side of the vehicle, a construction which allows the resetting of the mirror assembly when mounted on the passenger side of the vehicle may not work if the mirror assembly is mounted on the driver side of the vehicle.
A further problem common to the prior art is that the schemes for returning the mirror assembly to a preset position often require that the vehicle operator must be inside of the vehicle in order to return the passenger side mirror assembly to a previously set position. However, if a truck driver's personal belongings or other goods are inside the vehicle on the passenger side, it may be difficult for the driver to reach over the goods and out the passenger side window to readjust the mirror. Alternately, it may be especially difficult to return the mirror assembly to its preset position if one is viewing the mirror assembly from outside the vehicle instead of viewing the mirror assembly from inside the vehicle. The angle of view from outside the vehicle may differ sufficiently from the inside angle as to deny one the proper perspective for resetting the mirror to a previously noted position.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vehicle body side mirror assembly.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle body side mirror assembly which is relatively simple in construction and allows easy resetting of the mirror to a predetermined position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle body side mirror assembly which works equally well whether attached to the passenger side or driver side of a vehicle.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle body side mirror assembly which can easily be reset to a predetermined position even if one is outside of the vehicle.